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I post updates and new music every few days.
'Winter' by The Diamond Family Archive (free download)
At Prinz Willy
Winter is indeed upon most of us and yesterday I slipped and sloshed through the first snow I’ve seen fall. I’m home for a few days and reflecting and listening on what I’ve been making the last weeks. To start with, here’s a couple of things around a song by The Diamond Family Archive that I’ve been playing in the recent concerts.
At Prinz Willy’s wonderful corner bar in Kiel I played a rather quieter concert that was very enjoyable. Held the songs close and tried not to let things get too loud or unhinged. By the end of the night I was fit to burst and sure enough lashed out a bit at some innocent members of the nice audience. Apologies and whiskies went some way to fixing things, as is often the case.
Anyway, here’s from earlier in the set - ‘Winter’ by The Diamond Family Archive played spontaneously and a little wobbly true enough.
And here’s Laurence’s original, spectral version to listen and download:
Years ago in Brighton we even played it together:
I urge you all to go and listen to more music by this band, always so magic.
The Diamond Family Archive on Bandcamp
The Diamond Family Archive on Spotify
Have a nice weekend, speak soon
Stephen
PS
I believe this is @marshasdad_outside, whose point of view you can see here.
UT Connewitz in Leipzig this Saturday (free download)
I’m very happy to be returning to the magnificent UT Connewitz in Leipzig this Saturday night. A big old cinema and home to a great program of musicians over the years, I’ve been fortunate enough to have played there twice before. This weekend is a Woodland Recordings label night so my dear friends Vivian Void and Geneva are playing too. If you use Facebook the event is here.
The last time I played there was back in 2014 and the recording from my concert that night is currently up as a free download on my Bandcamp page here.
Also, Mina Reischer filmed the whole thing on Hi-8 video tape and that can be watched right below.
The night before, that is tomorrow, I’ll be at Gelegenheiten in Berlin. Also happy to be going back there and if anyone wants to join me there well that’s really brilliant too.
See you soon
Stephen
Fritzen, Hamburg (free download)
Photos by Jenny.
I recently got invited to play a concert in the wonderful little Fritzen design studio / gallery / shop in Hamburg. Was a real pleasure and a lovely visit and I wanted to share a couple of songs, some photos, brilliant sketches and illustrations from the evening. You can imagine the crowd were all hot creative folks so there was a fair bit of sketching, photographing and that sort of thing going on. Please click through the links, download the songs and share and all that - the people up there make lovely stuff and are incidentally the best hosts. Thanks Kathrin and all fine Fritzen folks.
Photo by Kathrin.
The following illustrations are also by Larissa Bertonasco.
Three songs from Luzern (free download)
I’m slowly getting my shit together after a hectic few weeks of concerts and working on new projects. Just this week we finished the debut album by Geneva, which I recorded and produced and is out now through my label, Woodland Recordings. A lovely little collection of songs in a delightful package - have a listen have a look:
I know, I know - somewhat off topic. Stay on target.
Photo by Neda.
So here’s three songs from a house concert I played at Neda’s lovely place on the hill above Luzern in Switzerland a few weeks ago. Neda takes care of The Phrontistery space in the town but this evening she invited me up to her house to play to a small audience there. Was a wet night, the rain lashing down and I played a collection of slower things, or at least the songs came out in different shapes this night. Here’s three of them edited together - listen separately below or click the button for a free, simple download from Dropbox.
As I said, I’m catching up with things and this weekend my next album ‘St Arbogast’ will be sent out to anyone who pre-ordered it and available to listen in full and buy from my Bandcamp right here.
I’m not lying when I say half of the first edition of 100 are gone so please pick one up kind of quick if you’d like one of those. I’ll write more on that before the weekend I’m sure.
Thanks for sticking with me and please have a lovely week.
Stephen
Free download from Zürich and Hamburg tomorrow.
I got home late Sunday night and will leave for Hamburg tomorrow, so just enough time here to put some washing through, change the guitar strings and import all the recordings from the last 10 days of concerts. I haven’t had a chance to listen to everything properly but here’s a very quickly mixed song from the concert Sophia and I played at the beautiful El Lokal in Zürich on the 27th of October.
We don’t get to play so often and our rehearsal was the 20 minute soundcheck we took. Fine, is what it is.
I may share the rest of this concert when I get the time, so please check back for that.
I have a return to the north and a concert in Hamburg tomorrow night at Fritzen. Wohlwillstrasse 20, free entry from 20:00. Happy to see some familiar faces there!
More later, kind of running…
Stephen
Kofferfabrik (free download)
Photo by Mina Reischer.
A lovely evening at the Kofferfabrik here in Fürth this last Saturday night. Geneva started with some sweet songs and then I played a long, slow set to a nice crowd. Some friends in the audience and Stefanie from Vivian Void joining me on stage for a couple too. Of course it turned into a long night so yesterday was lost in a lazy wander around the sunny town, talking and sitting by the riverside whilst the swimming club splashed about.
Anyway, here’s a free download of a song I had never played before but this evening turned up. I might follow with more from the night but right now I’m preparing for the shows and putting something else together for the newsletter exclusive series.
I know I said I would write about the new album yesterday but the simple thing to say is that it’s available for pre-order here and a massive thank you to everyone who has already bought it, especially as I’ve only posted a couple of things and people haven’t had a chance to hear much. Sight unseen, sound unheard or some such. Is very humbling, thank you all. The physical release turned out to be very simple and enjoyable to put together and hopefully I’ll find some more words to share before it comes out properly on the 24th of November.
This week I have concerts in Heidelberg, Darmstadt, Ulm and Zürich. Wowee.
See you soon?
S
El Lokal in Zürich this Sunday night.
Empty Room
Empty room in my flat this weekend so this was my Saturday night. I think it’s a six song EP coming at some point but will have the St Arbogast church recording ready before then. Soon.
Two songs from VV X this weekend (free download)
Photo: @vincent_von_flieger
Bit of a full weekend down here in the south with a sweet little concert at MUZ in Nürnberg on Friday night and then the main event - Vivian Void’s 10th birthday party concert at the Desi.
VV hadn’t played a concert for over a year (babies, house moves, job changes, concerns and commitments of daily life) but they had been planning this show for a while. After an emotional speech from Stefanie from the band I played a bunch of heavy songs, including this.
She also joined me to sing ‘SUPER GOOD ADVICE’ as she often does but a few days before I’d realised that the rhythm of this was pretty much the same as their ‘STRETCH ACROBATIC’ song.
So, without telling her I stuck it on the end and everything went noisy and fun.
Carsten came down from Berlin for this concert and he uploaded plenty videos of us all too:
Now I get sick and have to make my tax return and try to book concerts. A come down and it goes slowly.
Stephen
Songs from the boat at Flensburg and the train station in Kröpelin (free download)
Photo by Detlef Jens.
Despite losing my hard drive with the session I recorded on the Schiffbar one afternoon, I found that my audio recorder still had the memory card with audio from the concert there. Also still surviving was the recording from the concert two days later at de DROM in Kröpelin, so here are some songs from these two nights in the north.
Whenever I get to play in a room that’s built from wood and has a history I get all silly and play folk songs. ‘Jim Jones’ has a boat in it at least.
Kröpelin, with the sound of the crickets and the insects loudly buzzing through their Saturday night. I played everything slow and out of shape.
My guitar is being repaired at the moment - somehow after this the neck got broke. I still don’t know how or when but I’ve time to get it all together again these days. The key is to not get too attached.
Stephen
Thun in the rainstorm (free download)
Here’s something of a random post - I was making space on my hard drive and found my recording of the concert I played in Thun, Switzerland last month. This was organised by my good friend Reto of Mundwerk at his summer residence the Strandbad. A lovely place with incredibly tasty food, a thick cut above the usual swimming pool chips and burgers I grew up on.
I rode down there for this one show, was a kind of stop between home and a little trip to Italy. I left in the morning sunshine but by the time I got down there and walked around the lake to the pool there was a dark storm brewing and, whilst we ate amazing steaks outside on the terrace, it soon began to rain. The room was fairly full and as soon as I started it lashed it down outside and the thunder started up. As such, much of what I recorded is rain and all - grand enough but there are other places for that kind of thing.
Anyway, here’s two songs free to download - the first played for Reto (check out that gnarly thunder at 1:45) and the second played for that unpleasant 50 year old German man that seems to appear at every concert and ask me about Brexit. I hope I don’t see him this month, have had quite enough of that.
As it happens, next month I’ll be back in Thun on the 7th of September playing at the Schloss Hünegg as part of a poetry slam event my buddy Marco is putting together. Hope to see some familiar faces there.
Have a lovely weekend everyone,
Stephen
Atelierkonzert in Stuttgart last night (free download)
Photo: @helle.helle.helle
I played a concert in Dirk and Danielle’s studio yesterday evening down here in Stuttgart. First gig in a couple of weeks - was wonderful to be invited (perhaps I invited myself) and a very enjoyable evening.
I played kind of ok, the room was high and open with a lovely wooden floor so I played most of the set acoustic. Some new songs got out of the house for the first time and here’s a free download of the first performance of ‘It Don’t Stop The Bleeding’ from the new album.
I’m here for a couple more days and then will play a short set in Fürth on the 12th of August with dear Julia Laura at the Babylon Kino. A handful of dates at the end of the month in the north of Germany to come too. It all goes on.
Have a lovely Sunday,
Stephen
ps - adding this one too, which was dedicated to Dr Lamb and whose good stuff is here.
St Arbogast - part three (free download)
Back home yesterday evening and will be here for a few days, principally to wash or burn all the clothes I’ve been wearing in the heat of the past week. I have concerts in Freiburg, Thun and Schaffhausen next week and in between a drive down to Italy to buy teaspoons. Yep.
Back to wrap up my time at the Folk Festival in Arbogast and the Sunday found me scheduled to play a concert in the Dunkelkammer, or the photography darkroom. Taped up windows and no light getting in and sure enough pitch black and couldn’t even see my hands. I was set to play at 3pm and by quarter past I had an audience of 2. The sun was high and hot and other music being played outside and really no surprise that most people wouldn’t want to shut themselves in a black room with me and listen to me in my element. It was dark, somehow it went darker.
After ten minutes one of my audience had to leave (she did well to last that long) and so I gather it was me playing to one lady. It was like playing alone, but with a purpose. I lost myself a little and had such strange fun. Felt my way through everything, tripping up from moment to moment but no matter and it’s really just the shape changing all the time.
Shortly after this the heat got to me so I took a nap in my room. When I woke two hours later the audience had completely changed, most of everyone that I had got to know over the previous two days had left and there was a string group playing lovely African music in the sunshine in front of the stage. Backstage was deserted, the fridge empty and catering nowhere to be seen. I missed something for sure.
To be honest over the weekend I had sometimes felt that I was missing out on playing and on a couple of occasions my slot just vanished. When I had been scheduled to play 6 concerts over two days I had only played 3. It was a bit weird to not be able to play to people as often as I had liked to or as often as had been planned, but of course I understand that festival programs have a habit of changing and there are always casualties.
But I was conscious of being invited to be in residence there so it was important for me that I really made something of my time. That I was productive if not giving a concert. So at around midnight I took my things into the chapel up the hill and set up at the altar. Deathly silent outside and full of warm, fat echo within I recorded in it’s own particular darkness for two hours. I was anything but quiet and I do believe I have another album out of that time. This will have to wait.
Anyway if anyone connected is reading this then I’d like to say thanks to all who made me feel welcome and in good company. Particularly Johannes for the invitation of course - will visit you next year if not before.
Have a nice evening all
Stephen
ps - seems like I appeared on Austrian television which you can see here. I’m told that’s something.
St Arbogast - part two (free download)
Backstage at golden hour.
I have showered 4 times each day and sit here now in my darkened room dripping and sliding about the place. We have shade under the trees but the sun burns through. The heat is incredible, I suppose this week the most common thing to say and hear pretty much anywhere in Europe.
I’m still at St Arbogast Folk Festival - it’s Sunday afternoon but I’m going to write some words about Friday night and Saturday here and then I’m off to find ice cream and the breeze. I remember such a thing.
Friday night Buntspecht played on the main stage in the evening and killed it. Fantastic players, brilliant performance all the good stuff and I’m already looking forward to seeing them again in a couple of weeks somewhere in Germany. Some of the performance stuff is a little too cabaret for my taste but they all play so well and this night it just grew and grew and had such momentum and dynamics. Amazing.
Earlier Paul Plut had made a great racket too and basically I have been well happy to be surprised with enjoying hearing new people for the first time. I don’t really get to go to festivals and generally tend not to like most music I hear played live. I’m sure I don’t try hard enough to make the effort and I suppose I have a bit of a grumpy attitude problem.
Anyway at some point in the afternoon, I’m not sure when but the sun was certainly high and hot, I played under the linden tree to a lovely little crowd gathered in it’s shade. As I wrote yesterday I’ve been approaching this weekend with the idea that I could play different songs and it’s true that’s been happening. That being said here’s a song I know by now recorded under the tree.
Right after this, another shower and then I played back up the hill in the woods. A scrappy, messy set and little worth sharing from this I’m afraid. Can listen again and check later. Met some fine people up there and it was nice enough. Afterwards I retreated back to the dark room, another shower of course and then I recorded some songs in here for an hour and I think I’ll have stuff to share from that in the future.
I hope you’re having a fine weekend too,
Stephen
St Arbogast - part one (free download)
I’m at the Folk Festival in St Arbogast, near Götzis, Austria for the weekend. It’s absolutely scorching hot, people are being super nice and the area is very beautiful. I have a three day residence here and trying to play and write as much as I can - the weather and the countryside are distracting and inspiring in equal measure.
I played a short set in the woods yesterday afternoon and here are a couple of recordings from that. I’ve been preparing some folk songs and unfamiliar material to play for this weekend and if ‘The Royal Canal’ isn’t so new for me at least ‘Soldier Johny’ isn’t a song I’ve not really played before and is kind of based on a traditional song. This was a simple acoustic concert, sitting on a log in front of 20 people in the middle of the forest and perhaps there are photos and videos to follow but this should give some impression if that’s what you’re after.
I’ll write some more words about the weekend when I get the chance but I’m scheduled to play three more concerts today, more again tomorrow and there are some locations here where music could sound grand so hopefully more recordings to come from this most pleasant place.
Anyhow, good morning and more later. Have a lovely Sunday,
Stephen
UPDATE - Newsletter Exclusive #1 - April 2019
There was an error with this compilation but this is just a quick update to say I got on it and I’ve fixed it and now all songs are where they should be and hopefully working as intended.
Apologies for the break in service and please download again.
That is all, love from the sunny west of Austria where I will have more to share later.
Stephen
Newsletter Exclusive #1 - April 2019
Recently I wanted to put something new together for subscribers of my mailing list so I thought I’d start making regular compilations that will change every couple of months. Exclusive mixtapes, downloadable diary entries, what have you. This here’s the first - a 14 song set of songs played at various concerts in April 2019. I played a bunch of enjoyable shows that month and these recordings are from nice nights in Karlsruhe, Luzern, Bern, Thun and Baden. The track list goes like this:
The River Of Men Flows Without End (Karlsruhe)
The Royal Canal (Luzern)
Boys, I Am Worried (Baden, with Sophia Basler on Violin)
Pretty Peggy-O (Luzern)
Here (Luzern)
Song For Fee (Karlsruhe)
Suit Of Stones (Thun)
If You Build It They Will Come (Baden, with Sophia Basler on Violin)
Make Each Other Anew (Thun)
There Is Joy Yet Between The Pages (Luzern)
Super Good Advice (Luzern)
We Could Have We Should Have We Didn’t (Bern)
Annabel (Bern)
We Swam A Little Song (Karlsruhe)
Whilst there aren’t any train wrecks here I didn’t pick these as any kind of perfect version or anything like that - rather there was something about each one that I liked and felt was worth keeping. Some of them are recorded purely acoustic in the room, whilst others are with a mixing desk and microphones and all. I’ve tried to put it together so it flows but no one’s going to think this is a seamless single concert. It’s a collection of moments I enjoyed at tasty places. Hopefully there’ll be more in the future.
Previously when people subscribe I’ve been giving out download codes for the Stitch compilation, but that feels a little out of date now and not really how things sound these days. My plan is to change it every 3 or 4 months and it will only be available to people on the mailing list. It’s free to sign up and I don’t spam people with emails every week or anything like that. If you like the sound of this the form is below. I’ll send a mail out on Sunday with the password to grab this release.
In other news I hope you’re enjoying the summer and getting out in it as much as you can. Take care and be well,
Stephen
So Long Song with the swallows in Dresden (free download)
Photo: Peter Fischer.
Here’s an impression of my evening in Dresden last Thursday, playing outside in the courtyard of the Jazzclub Tonne. Swallows feeding overhead. I played new songs from the next album and had a very nice time of it. Thank you to all who made it along - I’ll be back in town next month so perhaps see you around then.
In the meantime I have something new and exclusively available for subscribers of my newsletter by the end of this week - more about that later but if you’d like to receive this please think about signing up here.
More later then, have a lovely Monday,
Stephen
Photo: @tonnedresden
The Woods (free download)
I’ve just released a new EP as a free download over on my Bandcamp site here. ‘The Woods’ was recorded a week or two ago in the forest near Baach, Germany. I set my audio recorder on the Hochsitz you see in the cover photo above and played for fifteen minutes or so. Three songs, including one that I also recorded for the new album coming next month. Much birdsong, a bee on the microphone, a plane overhead - all the good stuff, basically.
Here’s a simple video of the new song for those of you that can only listen whilst watching pictures move:
As with all this stuff, if you enjoy it please think about letting me know and if possible, share it somewhere online. All much appreciated.
That’s it, have a lovely Sunday evening.
Stephen
Two songs from Ulm two nights ago (free download)
Here be two songs from Sunday night’s concert at the Sauschdall (also Wikipedia) in Ulm, Germany. I like this venue a lot - a super solid old fort building with massive walls and rather crazy acoustics inside. Jazz venue since the 1960’s. The resident sound technician Andreas, a very friendly and capable guy, is nice to work with but it has to be said has a taste for the reverb, the delay and the chorus. The colour, let’s say. At soundcheck, and again in the interval, I asked that we cut the delay and the chorus and keep things simple but I think he felt it necessary to stay busy throughout my set. It sounded a bit random and distracting on the night and going though my recording of this show this morning most of it is pretty unlistenable to my ears at least. Chorus appears out of nowhere on my guitar, some words I sang are repeated, clipped and randomly delayed. Sometimes it’s fine on the night in the room at least, but doesn’t stand up at all when listened later. So it is here.
It’s a funny thing with this simple acoustic setup sometimes - I have the feeling that sound technicians often feel like they have to do something throughout the concert, to stay busy. I get that it’s not the most exciting thing to manage my sound and perhaps some people love the use of ‘colour’ for dramatic effect at different times in different songs. To add dynamics or whatever, but for me personally when playing I like to get an idea of the sound and stick with it. Have a picture to rely on where it is, what the shape of it is and how things are going to come out.
Blah, blah. I’m rambling so anyway, here’s the first song of the night:
And here’s the second to last one an hour or so later. Played as a request, poorly but distracted as I said.
Bit of a shame as it really was a pleasure to play there, like I say the whole crew are super friendly and helpful and the place is great. The Diamond Family Archive will play there in October so if you’re about please make it down and have a listen. There’s opportunities for some really crazy shit going on with their sound for sure, wowee.
Halfway through the evening the thunder and the lightning and the downpour had started on. We left the place in a rainstorm, walked down the hill and a short while later I drove off onto a flooded motorway and all the uneasy feelings there upon.
Photos and two songs from Werkstatt in Baden, Switzerland (free download)
Photo: https://seltsam.ch
Mike at selstam.ch sent me the photos he made from the concert at Werkstatt in Baden a week ago so I wanted to share them with you along with a few more songs from the night.
This was the last night of a two week tour I made in April and the only night where Sophia was able to join me with her violin. We didn’t get a chance to rehearse, instead just working out some basic arrangements in the other room right before we started. This level of preparation is fine for me but it does mean that the pair of us are kind of winging it on the songs we choose to do together. Keeps it interesting and wonderful for me to have some rare support (and surprises) whilst playing.
Anyway, these two I rarely play without Sophia so I thought they would be good to upload and share. Sophia wrote the original string parts for ‘If You Build It They Will Come’ when we made the ‘Turn Your Back On The Crown’ album together, but the music for ‘I Was In The North Before The Fall’ (from ‘The Good Men’) is new. We jump in and hang on, it is what it is.
I recorded almost every concert last month and plan to release an EP of things played in a week or so. Will be back with news on that if I can manage to make something listenable. Otherwise I’m finishing new songs and plan to record those as soon as the weather allows. I’ve my eye on a hut on a hill in which to record but I’m fearful of the cold there within. It was summer for a week but now it’s autumn in the south of Germany.
More soon then!
Photo: seltsam.ch